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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARDING 

AT THE 

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, MARION, OHIO, 

JULY 4, 1922. 



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My Friends and Neighbors : It is exceedingly good to come home 
and meet with you again and join you in the centennial celebration 
of the founding of Marion. Frankly, it would be preferable to come 
simply as a Marionite and speak as one, because it is easily possible 
for me to feel a peculiar intimacy toward such an occasion. 

I can not justify a claim to any great part in making the Marion 
of to-day, but as a newspaper worker for more than a third of a 
century I have done a lot of cheering, which is no less essential to 
the forward movement in a community than it is in football or base- 
ball. Amid the cheering and boosting I did my share of observing 
and recording, and I could relate things interesting to me, probably 
interesting to you, of Marion, but they would seem rather trivial to 
that larger community which is habituated to expect some form of 
broadcasting to every presidential utterance. 

An interesting reminder of the inescapable responsibility for presi- 
dential utterance came to me a year ago. I was on a brief vacation 
in the mountains of New Hampshire, and my generous host said we 
must go to the near-by village, which had been his boyhood home, 
and meet the people who would be assembled. We motored down 
the mountain ; we had a most agreeable meeting, and I spoke extem- 
poraneously for probably 15 minutes. Sixty days later there came 
to my desk a newspaper published in Peking, China, with a ver- 
batim reprint of the speech. 

Of course, there was nothing in it which I did not say sincerely. 
No one fit for public service will ever be guilty of that. 

My thought is that, ordinarily, there is time and place for particu- 
lar speech, but in the presidential office all times and all places are 
very much alike. There may be a justified pride in the manifest 
interest of all our own people and all the world being interested in 
what the United States Government is thinking or saying, but I 
confess being human enough to wish to talk of the intimate things 
relating to Marion, without misconstruction or misapplication. 

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There is much of the latter. Maybe it will not be unseemly 

to relate an instance. Several weeks ago, when the returning tide 
of industrial activity made the time seem opportune, T invited some 
tO or 50 captains of the great iron and steel industry to dine with 
me, to .(.ut'er about the abolition of the L2-hour work-day. I did 
not choose to proclaim the purpose in advance, because I dislike 
the tendency to promise excessively and accomplish inadequately. 
Imagine my surprise, yea. my amusement, to read in an important 
metropolitan new-paper that I was dining the steel barons to " shake 
them down *' for the deficit in campaign funds of 1920. 

It would he good to talk about Marion, just among ourselves. I 
know- nothing more interesting to any man than his own community. 
If he is not interested, he is not a good citizen. 

A century sounds like a long while at first impression, but after 
all it is only a little while. There are communities in the world 10 
or 20 centuries old not half so important in world activities to-day: 
perhaps they have contributed to human progress infinitely less in 
all their time than Marion has in one century. Nay, in a shorter 
time than that, for the Marion we boast of has been really only a half 
century in the making. 

I mean no disparagement of the older and earlier citizenship of 
sturdy qualities which pioneered the way. Theirs was a great and 
highly essential work in blazing the way for the present-day civili- 
zation. It required strong men and noble women to turn wilderness 
into worth-while habitations. Malaria and ague sorely tried human 
bodies even though souls cheerfully resisted. 

( ieneral Pershing has spoken of the fearless colonists, and we 
ought to revere them for their surpassing bequest of liberty and 
nationality, but the builders of the West, the men and women 
who marched with the "westward star of empire," were no less 
brave, no less heroic, and were more prophetic. They sensed the 
greater possibilities, of which the colonists had not dreamed. 

I said a century seemed a long time in which to achieve, and is 
yet only a little while. The Nation lacks four years of boasting a 
century and a half, but discovery came four centuries ago. and a 
century and a half of colonial development preceded the national 
beginning. 

It was my fortune to participate in the tercentenary celebration 
of tlie landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, a year ago. and there 
was the constant reminder that New England had preceded us two 
centuries in the making of America. 

But there is a rather more personal reason for the "little-while"* 
view. 1 became a citizen of Marion 40 years ago, almost to a day. 
and have been a resident of .the county just about 50 years. And 

LIBKAKY OF C<JH GHt3s ; 
'■RECEIVED 

JUL 2 6 19 22 



it all has the seeming of being but a little while. Yet I could 
almost qualify as a pioneer. 

The Marion I first saw in 1882 had less than 4,000 people, but my 
first impression was that of very much a city, in which I feared I 
should- be hopelessly lost. The industrial awakening had not been 
given notable expression. Edward Huber had begun the industrial 
march, but he was still struggling, as most industries struggle, be- 
fore they are firmly founded. 

Probably Marion was as countrified as I felt, but I did not know. 
It was my viewpoint, my limited vision, which kept me from know- 
ing. You see, I came from the farm and village, and the county 
seat of 4,000 loomed big in my vision, because I had seen nothing 
greater. Surely it looked ten times as large as it does to-day, though 
the Marion of to-day is ten times larger than then and twice ten 
times as important in its relationship to the world of human ac- 
tivities. 

This confession is meant to have application. How important is 
the viewpoint to all the impressions and problems of life. The 
A-illager goes to the great city, is confused by the high tide of ac- 
tivities, and awed by the complacency of those accustomed to them,, 
and so repeals himself as provincial, and is so designated. But those 
who proclaim him are ofttimes no less provincial, because they too 
have the narrow vision; they do not know the village and country 
life, which is ever freshening and swelling the current of our na- 
tional life. 

The early Marion had only the viewpoint of the county civic and 
trading center until industrial genius flashed on the screen the pic- 
ture of factory production, balances of trade in larger circles, and 
the attending advancements incident to greater activities. It is not 
for me to detail the expansion and transformation. We are an out- 
standing industrial and commercial community to-day, and I join 
you in a very great pride in the Marion of 1922, and wish for it 
accentuated growth, magnified importance, and larger social, educa- 
tional, moral, and patriotic attainments in the century to come. It 
would little avail to record more material enlargements. The con- 
sciousness of mental and spiritual attainments, readily fostered by 
material growth, is the real compensation to be striven for. 

Let me turn my thoughts to the natal day of the Nation. One 
hundred and forty-six years have passed since the prophetic begin- 
ning, and it will be a patriotic thing to stop for retrospection, and 
introspection, and circumspection, to take stock about our keeping 
of the legacy bequeathed by the founding fathers. 

In our international relations all is well. They are securer, to-day. 
with more assuring prospects of peace than ever before in the history 



of the Republic. New guaranties have recently been added by the 

vi'i'v process of exchanging viewpoints and bringing the spokesmen 
of great nation- to the conference table, and for the exchange of 
views, and to resolve to do together those fine and nobler things 

which no one nation could do alone. 

Frankly, we have a broader viewpoint than the founding fathers: 
we must have, because human progress has altered our world rela- 
tionship, but we have held firmly to all the fundamentals to which 
they committed us. We can not be aloof from the world, but we can 
impress the world with American ideals. I mean to say it. because 
it is seemly to say it. the world believes to-day in American national 
unselfishness as never before, and recognizes our commitment to jus- 
tice to be no less resolute than our determination to preserve our 
liberties. Even Russia, toward whom we remain aloof, except in 
sympathy and a very practical proof thereof, looks upon America 
as friend and example. 

But let us turn specifically to introspection, take stock among our- 
selves. Materially, we have surpassed the wildest dreams of the 
inspired founders. I saw the 15-starred flag the other day. the flag 
of 1812, unfurled over Fort McHenry, during the attack in which 
Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner." Ohio made 
the fifteenth star. You can little guess the contrast between the 
blue field with 15 stars and the same held with the 48 glittering stars 
of to-day, all fastened by popular faith and brightened by popular 
hope. 

We are great and rich and powerful as to States and sections: 
we are in the full concord of union. This great organic law has been 
preserved and it> ambiguities removed. Where there has been en- 
larged Federal authority, the States have wished it so. The Constitu- 
tion has been amended to meet the popular will. Our representa- 
tive form of constitutional government is responsive to the will of 
the majority, responsive to the expression of deliberate public opin- 
ion. It must be so to endure. Majorities, restrained to the protec- 
tion of minorities, ever must rule. The Constitution and the laws 
sponsored by the majority must be enforced. It does not matter who 
opposes. If an opposing minority has a just objection, the rising 
t ide of public opinion will change the law 7 . There is no abiding liberty 
under any other plan. 

I mean to sound no note of pessimism. This Republic is secure. 
Menaces do arise, but public opinion will efface them. Meanwhile 
government must repress them. The eighteenth amendment denies 
to a minority ;i fancied sense of personal liberty, but the amendment 
is t he will of America and must be sustained by the < hive; nment and 
public opinion, else contempt for the law will undermine our very 
foundations. 



The foremost thought in the Constitution is the right to freedom 
and the pursuit of happiness. Men must be free to live and achieve. 
Liberty is gone in America when any man is denied by anybody the 
right to work and live by that work. It does not matter who denies. 
A free American has the right to labor without any other's leave. 
It would be no less an abridgment to deny men to bargain collec- 
tively. Governments can not tolerate any class or grouped domina- 
tion through force. It will be a sorry day when group domination 
is reflected in our laws. Government, and the laws which govern- 
ment is charged with enforcing, must be for all the people, ever 
aiming at the common good. 

The tendencies of the present day are not surprising. War stirred 
the passions of men and left the world in upheaval. There have been 
readjustments and liquidations, and more remain to be made. In the 
making there has been the clash of interests, the revelations of greed, 
the perfectly natural tendency to defend self-interests. It has devel- 
oped groups and blocs and magnified class inclinations. But the re- 
adjustment is no less inevitable, and it is world-wide. It is the 
problem of human kind. Your Government has sought to aid, with 
patience, with tolerance, with sympathy. It has sought to mitigate 
the burdens. It has sought the merging of viewpoints to make the 
way easier. It believes the America of our opportunity and unchal- 
lenged security affords the way to solution. 

In war we give all we possess, all our lives, all our resources, every- 
thing, to make sure our national survival. Our preservation in peace 
is no less important. It calls for every patriotic offering, because 
dangers from within are more difficult to meet than the alien enemy. 
My one outstanding conviction, after 16 months in the Presidency, 
is that the greatest traitor to his country is he who appeals to preju- 
dice and inflames passion, when sober judgment and honest speech 
are so necessary to firmly establish tranquillity and security. 

A few days ago I chanced to see in a home paper a quotation from 
Will Carleton's story of " The First Settler." I heard Mr. Carleton 
read it in the old city hall 35 years ago. It was the recital of hasty 
and unheeding speech to the first settler's wife, when he found the 
cattle had strayed. Stirred by his reproach she started to find them, 
brought them back, sank exhausted on t'he cabin floor, where he 
found her dead body after his all-night search. In his remorse, he 
felt the guilt of his killing words, and in his reciting the story he 
said: 

Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds. 

But you can't do that way when you're flying words. 

Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead. 

But God Himself can't kill 'em, once they're said. 



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1 leave yon that thought on this centennial day. because its lesson 
will save many a wound, many a cross current in the happiness of 
the community; it will saw many a menace in the national life. 

I have n.» fear about the Republic. We are not only stronger, but 
we are morally better than when we began. If there is seeming 
excess of exploitation, profiteering, dishonesty, and betrayal, it is 
only because we are grown the larger, and we know the ills of life, 
and read of then, more than I he good that is done. I do not wonder 
that the ignorant and illy informed are made restless by the mag- 
nified stories of public abuses and proclaimed privilege. We need 
truth, only the truth, the wholesome truth, as the highest aid to 
Americanization and the manifestation of highest patriotism. 

America will go on. The fundamentals of the Republic and all 
its liberties will be preserved, and Government must maintain the 
supremacy of law and authority. Under these liberty has its fullest 
fruition and men attain to reveal the glory of liberty's institutions. 



, ASH I NGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1922 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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